Let me just say that I have read all your stories for Collateral and I have greatly enjoyed each and every one of them. You are an amazing writer and after recently seeing the film you have done a fantastic job with Vincent and have portrayed him exactly as he was in the film, which I love. I also love your character Callie and the chemistry that she and Vincent have and I hope you will continue writing, because I am on pins and needles here and cannot wait to read the next chapter. Please Please Please Update Soon!

'angry fangirl' WHAT? Where's the sex? If you hadn't had the little discussion at the end (thanks Vincent and Jackson) then it would have been much too subtle for me. I never got that there was a Meyer-esque fade to black-moment there... Ah, well.

You know, I'm probably the greatest Collateral fan there is, and on top of that I love your writing to death. I don't know how many times I've read Lost In Space... SO, you've made my YEAR by finally posting again! :D

I like the differences from the first version, this is better as far as I remember the first one. I'm not sure I'm byuing that Rochester didn't rape her in that closet... of course that would have messed up your plot, but he might very well have done that, him being... him.

Hoo boy,Jackson is not gonna be happy that Bill finked on siree.I hope that Vincent and Callie make up and become friends again.:)BTW,What's wrong with Gorgeous Blue Eyes having over five hundred fanfics anyway? When you've got a good character with an unknown past and who is also handsome,o' course people are going to want to read about .:)

Update soonest please!And put Jackson in it!Lots and lots of yummy Jackson, should feel like a heel after sleeping with that should also realize that Callie,after her and brother were threatened by a psycho and her father was brutally murdered by the same psycho,that Callie wouldn't have much interest in sex.I wouldn't want to be with Vincent either after he'd been with the company then Vincent is a slut too for sleeping with couldn't she be interested in Jackson instead? Update soon please.:)

Hey, I just stumbled across this and wanted to tell you it's great! I read the summary and went to the story before this one, and just finished this story. You have written a story using two of my favorite movies which include my absolute two favorite hit men! Your character of Callie is very believable and I'm really enjoying the twists and turns (other than Callie's dad, of course). I can't wait to see what happens next. Please update soon! Oh, and your disclaimers are as entertaining as the story!

The reality of Callie's situation is unnerving. "If she took a moment to appreciate this situation from Vincent’s perspective, she was seeing that he was going through a lot of trouble for a woman he didn’t have any reason to protect outside from some personal feeling he couldn’t even quite identify. What was his payoff from this? Sooner or later, he might see it was net zero. She was really walking on thin ice." Very true, but she has to stay true to herself, as well. I'm proud of her for seeing both sides. "But still, her other half argued, she hadn’t asked him for any of this. She didn’t want to be here." Vincent was the one who got into her cab and got her into this horrible mess in the first place. How confusing and frustrating! Poor Callie, she's in for a whole lot worse than what she's been through up to this point, I'm positive.

SJ, your writing shines because of the perfectly described expressions and body language. What a great visual this is: "His eyes…how strange they turned. That unfocused look she had seen a few times during that night, as if he were gazing inside himself and was horrified at what he saw, but didn’t dare show it." I don't have to put an ounce of effort into imagining Vincent's face at this moment.

Bill must be channeling Lisa Reisert's future thoughts of revenge: "After leaving Callie at the airport, he had refused to ride back with Rippner. He couldn’t be around that man for more than two minutes alone, for fear of wanting to strangle him." This says so much about Jackson Rippner, and we don't even know what he says or does to make Bill feel so hostile. I'm gonna bet only straight men feel this way towards ol' Jackson, haha.

I can't wait for the next chapter, and I hope Jackson turns up, in the flesh this time. I giggled at Vincent calling Jackson a "big ass-kissing crybaby." Priceless.

You're so good at writing the psychological side of a story, I'm excited to see what you do with your Red Eye fic. Anyway, I hope you update soon, I want to know what Vincent has planned for catching Rochester!

Poor Callie, stuck on a yacht with that foul dog Vincent. Bravo to her that she didn't claw his eyes out, because that's what I would have done out of jealousy and disgust. She is so tough! Grieving for her murdered father, wanting to comfort her brother, missing Laurie and his friendship, fighting her irrational desire for a dangerous man-and now having to also deal with Vincent's sexual relations with a prostitute being thrown in her face? Ugh. Callie, if you ever forgive him after this, you are a saint. Personally, I'd rather take my chances with Rochester than to be treated so rudely.

I wholeheartedly approve of Callie giving Vincent the silent treatment. He'd better watch out, because he was so right when he thought this: "He didn’t like it when she wouldn’t talk to him. He didn’t like it when anybody wouldn’t talk to him, but especially her. When a person stopped talking, that was when a person became dangerous." So, so true. He went way too far this time. "The coldness in her eyes, though. That bothered him. Before her irritation had been amusing, encouraging. Now it was murderous." Yep. He has no idea how to relate to women in any meaningful way. Which is a compliment to you, SJ, I absolutely believe this to be the same character from Collateral, you have captured his personality and his very essence on paper.

I felt all smug and wanted to egg on Peter when he told Vincent "If she’s important, Vincent, I’d say you’ve sufficiently fucked it up." I am so glad someone said it! Vincent has no patience, no sense of what a true woman would want in a relationship. He decided that since she didn't want him RIGHT THEN, that he would punish her by violently banging another woman practically in her face. Vincent has no concept of how to treat a woman. Period.

You really got to me with this chapter, SJ. I am still fired up about it, as I'm sure you can tell! Make Vincent suffer, pretty please?

Oh, and how true to Jackson's character was pointing out the incorrect spelling of Dom Perignon? I could totally see him being a snob like that. But a sexy snob. He could smugly correct me any day. I think I'd go against all my principles and start misspelling even simple words if it would get his attention! So I'm begging you to put Jackson in the next chapter, preferably missing some clothing...

Great chapter, great song choice (I LOVE Pearl Jam's original three albums, I still listen to them at least once a week, even after all these years). I truly cannot wait for the next chapter...hopefully Vincent will get the punishment he so deserves (and not any type of sexy punishment, either-I can hear NicolinaN's brain working on that story right now, haha). Thanks again, SJ!

It took me awhile, but here I am, with my review, FINALLY! A little late to the party, but I still made it...

Callie is getting to Vincent, awaking emotions I'm sure he didn't even know he had. "Trying to take her hand before had been a bad idea. The sting of the rejection was something he pushed aside. He was used to ignoring his pain. As difficult as that was becoming lately, he was determined to keep at it." Not so stoic anymore, are ya, Vince? I think this is why I love this fanfic so much, SJ; you took a man who seemingly had all of his emotions under control, and then you added an element that would force him to finally feel for another human being. I love seeing this change and how he deals with it. Most importantly, you've kept Vincent in character, despite the radical shift in his priorities. Superbly done!

And even though he has feelings for Callie, when he suspects he needs to protect his own ego, he does so by reveling in Callie's own emotional struggle. "He felt a smile tugging at his lips. It was almost fun, watching her squirm. Whatever she thought was so important, he couldn’t imagine. But he didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wasting her time. Instead, he just sat back and accepted the free entertainment." Very true to Vincent's character, not having the slightest idea what another human being could be feeling, but finding their emotional pain to be so far removed from himself that he can enjoy it as he would a free circus.

And I cringed for Callie when she had to admit to Vincent that she didn't want a physical relationship in return for the protection he offered. How difficult must that have been, knowing that Vincent was only protecting her because of his feelings for her? Yet she stuck to her principles and stood up for herself. Good for her! But, yet, she wasn't fooled by his easy compliance, even though she must accept his response at face value:

"He seemed to have taken her words to heart. It had not been easy to say those things to him – the risk of humiliation had been alarmingly high, but still, it needed to be done. Worse, the risk of angering him had not appealed, but he’d taken it well. Too well, in her opinion, but she wasn’t going to spend all her time second guessing everything."

And then, when she thought she had everything under control, now that she had made it clear to Vincent that she did not want his affections, an unforeseen complication: Cathy. Vincent turned his attentions to her, and Callie's deepest, darkest desire came to life: "To hear it directed at another woman shot a flame of jealousy through her that scared her with its intensity."

So now, in addition to the threat that is Rochester, the pain of Ray, Sr.'s death, and the uncomfortable alliance with Vincent, Callie has to deal with the green-eyed monster? Poor girl, I've never been so glad that my life is so humdrum!

And the final bit of awesome in this chapter: a shout-out? I feel so honored! This tickled me: